August 21-27, 2011

Week Total: 103.77


Saturday - 10.15

9:40 AM - slept in till 8, went to breakfast at the Asbury Grove Coffee Shop, had a Grove McMuffin (ham, american cheese and fried egg on grilled english muffin) plus a cup of coffee, came home and grabbed some water then headed downtown for the Hamilton Firefighter's 5-Mile. 1.5 mile warmup with Heather, feeling a little uneasy in the stomach, then we were off...went through the first mile in 5:05, with Nick DeSouza right on my shoulder in his Vibram 5 fingers. 2 miles in 10:24 as we started the climb through Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, still next to each other. I put a little space between us on the uphill, but I could hear his rubber feet slapping the pavement as we came down the hill and out the main entrance onto essex street. Mile 3 was a 5:18 and I was feeling my breakfast and the humidity. Mile 4, which is usually my fastest on this course with a significant downhill was a 5:19. The last mile I was alone, but would have liked better than a 5:26, which is what I got, for a grand total of 26:27. Nick finished 2nd in 26:42. Heather ran a bit faster than last year and was first female, 6th overall in 32:28. Did 3.6 for a cooldown with Nick and then Heather.

Friday - 12.79

5:30 PM - after practice ran home, 4.61 easy

5:11 AM - got out early and did whole morning loop for the first time this week - 8.18 in 56:15

Thursday - 12.24

5:15 PM - after first day of HW xc practice, ran from HW to my parents' house and then ran back with my brother Adam; 5.76 total

5:29 AM - 6.48 out and back on morning loop easy

Wednesday - 16.67


4:19 PM - ~2 mi. warmup to HW track, 400-800-1200-mile-1200-800-400 (400m recovery after first 400 and both 800's; 800m recovery after 1200's and mile) - 67/2:21/3:44/4:59/3:39/2:23/67 - 2 mi. cooldown


5:38 AM - out and back with a couple pickups; 6.5 at 6:38 pace


Tuesday - 15.33

4:13 PM - met John Barbour at Bennett Center at Gordon College for nice 8+ miles around Beverly

5:31 AM - out and back, same as yesterday, but faster and cooler outside

Monday - 14.83

PM - ran for an hour with Greg Krathwohl in the woods of Hamilton, pretty slow and conversational most of the way


AM - out and back on morning loop, slowly


Sunday - 21.76

3:15 PM - long run/track workout right from Daniels' Running Formula; 3 mi. Tempo on the track, followed by one hour of easy running (roads) with 3 x one-mile tempo on the track at the end. I've done this workout once before (in August 2006 training for Cape Cod) and I remembered the 3 miles at the end being the real work - trying to run faster than marathon pace for miles 16-18 (roughly).

I started with a 3+ mile run to the HW track and went right into 3-mile T. First mile was 5:21, second 5:23, third 5:11 for a total of 15:56. I knew I had a lot more running to go, but I really wanted to be under 16 minutes for the initial effort. Then I headed out on a 9-mile loop and ran right around 6:30's, which felt pretty comfortable in spite of the warm, humid conditions. The last couple miles before I got back to the track I was dragging a little and just wanted to get the hard running over with. I felt ok on the first mile (5:23) and actually thought I could go a little harder the next two, but it was all I could do to run two more at 5:27. The 3 miles home I stayed just under 7-minute pace, for a grand total of 21.76 in 2:18:52, which is a 6:22 average.

Pleased with the workout, but of course I wanted to check and see what I had done in '06. Turns out five years ago (almost to the day) I ran the 3 mile tempo a little slower (just over 16), then didn't cover quite as much ground in the hour run (8.7), but my first mile back on the track was a 5:18, followed by 2 5:26's. This is my fourth 20 miler already this summer, compared to only one I had done that year at this time.